Childhood Innocence
by Amalia Autumn
Summary: Alphonse experiences childhood innocence in the eyes of two little siblings, bickering on the street on a lovely morning in Central...


"Tao, give it back!! It's mine!"

"Nuh-uh! It's mine!!!"

The supposedly empty suit of armor sitting alone on the steps leading up to the military headquarters finally looked up to see what was with all the racket. There were two little children standing by the steps, both tugging ferociously at the little doll.

"TAOOOOO!! I'm gonna tell Mommy!" exclaimed the little girl tugging at the doll's head. She was cute, the armor had to admit. She wore her long blonde hair in two pigtails, and her big blue eyes were gleaming with anger. The little sidewalk chalk in her pocket was about to fall out.

The boy tugging at the doll's feet, who was clearly named Tao, had messy brown hair, tangled up in knots. His green eyes lit up when he realized the little girl was tugging harder.

"Tell Mommy, then! And then _I'm _gonna tell her I found it first!" yelled Tao, pulling at the doll.

Alphonse Elric sighed, watching the children in amusement. He remembered vaguely that him and his older brother used to fight like that whenever they found something.

...Actually, they fought like that all the time when they were younger.

_"Brotherrrr! Let go!! I found this in the first place!!!"_

_"You let go, Alphonse! I was the one who found it!!!"_

There was a loud rip, breaking Alphonse from his foggy memories. He looked and saw the doll ripped completely in half on the ground, cotton spewing out.

The two looked down at the doll in shock. Then, the little girl burst out crying and pointed at Tao,

"You did it! You broke up the doll!"

"Nuh-uh! _You _did!" Tao retorted angrily.

Alphonse sighed once again, and rose, walking towards the children, being cautious. Being a seven-foot tall suit of armor wasn't helpful when it came to people who didn't know his circumstances, especially little children.

The kids finally noticed him, and their eyes both widened.

Slowly, Alphonse kneeled down, looked at the doll, and decided right there. This would be a quick fix.

He looked up, and gently lifted up a gauntlet to the little girl, "Can I borrow your chalk?" his voice reverberated from the empty armor.

She backed away a few fearful steps.

"Cool! A talking armor!" exclaimed Tao. He turned to his sister, "Lil, give 'em the chalk!!"

She didn't move.

"Please," Alphonse implored, "I won't hurt you."

With a trembling hand, Lil fished the chalk out of her pocket, and held it out to Alphonse.

The moment Al took the chalk, Lil snatched her hand away as if he'd bitten her. Tao watched with wondering eyes as Alphonse began to draw an alchemical transmutation circle around the doll.

"W--what are you doing?" Lil's fear faded into confusion.

"Just watch!" Tao hissed.

Al finished drawing the circle, and rested both palms on the circle.

There was a bright blue glow, so bright that both Lil and Tao had to shield their eyes. Once the light faded the two siblings looked down to see the doll, fully repaired and not ripped.

"You did it! You fixed her!" Lil instantly picked up the doll, hugging it close to her chest.

Tao looked up as Alphonse rose, "What are you, some kind of toy fixer?"

Alphonse chuckled, "No. I'm an alchemist."

"What's an al--al--?" Tao had trouble pronouncing the word.

"An alchemist is someone who studies alchemy."

"What's alchemy?" Lil finally spoke.

"It's science."

"What's science?" Both the kids asked in unison.

Even though Alphonse was a child himself, he couldn't quite explain alchemy to the point where little children could understand, "Um...you'll find out when you're older," was all he could say.

"Well, you fixed the dollie!" Lil said happily, grinning widely to show two front teeth missing, "I'd say you're my superhero!"

If he were human, Alphonse would've blushed, "Gee, I'm not too sure about the superhero part..."

"Yeah!!!" Tao agreed, "You're Super Armor!"

Alphonse couldn't help but giggle. There was nothing quite like childhood innocence, "I guess I am."

"C'mon, Lil, let's play Super Armor! I'll be the armor, and you can be the girl I save from the evil Rats of Doom!!" Tao said the last part loudly, like an announcer. He ran off as if he was flying in the air.

"Oh, Super Armor, save me!!!" Lil followed, "The evil rats are coming to get me!"

Tao turned the corner, and Lil was about to follow, but she ran back to Alphonse, and held up the doll, "Mommy says when someone does something nice for you, you should thank them, so here. This is for you. It's our way of saying thank you."

"_Remember boys, whenever someone does something nice for you, the way the Rockbells have for us, always say thank you._"

Alphonse took the doll in his large hands, "Thank you very much."

"Bye-bye now, Super Armor," Lil waved one last goodbye, and she turned the corner after her brother.

Alphonse watched the corner long after Lil had turned, and then he looked at the doll in his left palm.

Come to think of it, it looked sort of like the one he and Edward made for Winry when they first used alchemy...

"Hey, Al, you staring out into space again?" Edward suddenly appeared beside him, waving a hand. Al looked at his brother.

"Oh...hi, Brother. I didn't see you there. So what did the Colonel want?" Alphonse said as they began walking.

"Eh, nothing really, he just wanted me to report. What's with the doll?"

"Huh? Oh...just...some little girl gave it to me."

"She just waltzed on up to you and gave it to you?"

"Uh, no, it ripped and I fixed it...so she gave it to me to keep. Her and her brother. It was her way of saying thanks. Remember whenever someone did something nice for us, brother, and we always had to say thank you?"

"Yeah, I remember." Ed replied distantly.

"Well, brother, I just want to tell you thank you." Al replied.

"Huh, what for?" Ed looked up to meet his brother's eyes--or the eye slots on the armor.

"For--I dunno, for everything, I guess."

Ed looked down, a soft smile adorning his features, "...Your welcome."

**Just some work I managed to type because I got bored...yet again.**


End file.
